Jerusalem - The Middle East Newsline newsletter has uncovered a U.S. State Department which documents that it has detected Syrian efforts to bypass U.S. sanctions imposed on Damascus over the last decade.
In that report, the department's inspector-general said the U.S. embassy foiled several of these Syrian attempts.
"The United States also was able to thwart several Syrian attempts to evade sanctions, thanks to timely embassy warnings," the report, titled "Report of Inspection," said.
These efforts included the use of Arab and European companies to acquire dual-use items from the United States and other Western countries.
In 2003, Congress imposed sanctions designed to ban dual-use exports to Syria. Since then, the White House has occasionally waived provisions in a move that allowed U.S. companies to develop energy resources in Syria, which appears on the State Department's list of terrorist sponsors.
"Reporting on economic sanctions, and the government of Syria's attempts to circumvent them, was superb," the report by deputy inspector-general Harold Geisel said.
The U.S. State Department said U.S. enforcement of sanctions on Syria has been muddled under the administration of President Barack Obama. The report said U.S. diplomats have failed to receive guidance on whether sanctions should be enforced or waived amid Washington's new policy of reconciliation with Damascus.
"The most immediate issue requiring greater clarity concerns economic sanctions," the report said. "There is no front-channel guidance on the issue."
Over the last six months, the administration has approved U.S. exports to Damascus that appear to violate the 2003 sanctions. They include the transfer of Internet technology as well as the sale of aircraft parts.
The report, dated March 2010, said the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs must launch an interagency review of U.S. sanctions on Syria. Such a review must provide the U.S. embassy in Damascus with guidelines on sanctions and potential waivers.
"The inspection team reviewed e-mail and informal traffic regarding sanctions and waiver policy, and found several areas in which the guidance appeared to be contradictory," the report said. "There also was inadequate guidance regarding how embassy officers should advise potential U.S. exporters of sanctions and possible waivers."
View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
View this story at Israel Behind the News
Showing posts with label sanctions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sanctions. Show all posts
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Former Israel Deputy Defense Minister: Israel Will Attack Iran by November
by Ken Timmerman at NewsMax
Israel will be compelled to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities by this November unless the U.S. and its allies enact “crippling sanctions that will undermine the regime in Tehran,” former deputy defense minister Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday in Tel Aviv.
The sanctions currently being discussed with Russia, China, and other major powers at the United Nations are likely to be a slightly-enhanced version of the U.N. sanctions already in place, which have had no impact on the Iranian regime.
And despite unanimous passage of the Iran Petroleum Sanctions Act in January, the Obama administration continues to resist efforts by Congress to impose mandatory sanctions on companies selling refined petroleum products to Iran.
In an Op-Ed in the Israeli left-wing daily, Haaretz, Sneh argues that Iran will probably have “a nuclear bomb or two” by 2011.
“An Israeli military campaign against Iran’s nuclear installations is likely to cripple that country’s nuclear project for a number of years. The retaliation against Israel would be painful, but bearable.”
Sneh believes that the “acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran during Obama’s term would do him a great deal of political damage,” but that the damage to Obama resulting from an Israeli strike on Iran “would be devastating.”
Nevertheless, he writes, “for practical reasons, in the absence of genuine sanctions, Israel will not be able to wait until the end of next winter, which means it would have to act around the congressional elections in November, thereby sealing Obama’s fate as president.”
Sneh does not foresee any U.S. military strikes on Iran, an analysis that is shared by most observers in Washington, who see the Obama administration moving toward containment as opposed to confrontation with Iran.
In a recent report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), military analyst Anthony Cordesman concluded that Israel will have to use low-yield earth-penetrating nuclear weapons if it wants to take out deeply-buried nuclear sites in Iran.
“Israel is reported to possess a 200 kilogram nuclear warhead containing 6 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium that could be mounted on the sea launched cruise missiles and producing a Yield of 20 kilo tons,” Cordesman writes in the CSIS study he co-authored by Abdullah Toukan.
Israel would be most likely to launch these missiles from its Dolphin-class submarines, he added.
While Sneh is no longer in the Israeli government, his revelation of a drop-dead date for an Israeli military strike on Iran must be taken seriously, Israel-watchers in the U.S. tell Newsmax.
“Ephraim Sneh is a serious guy,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “He was deputy minister of defense and has long been focused on the issue of Iran.”
Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director for Security Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), said that what struck her most about Sneh’s comments was the shift of emphasis from resolving the Palestinian problem to Iran.
“For 30 years, he’s been saying that solving the Palestinian problem is Israel’s biggest priority. Now he’s saying, forget about the Palestinians. Iran is the problem.”
Sneh “is extremely well regarded on the left and the right,” she added. “People respect him enormously.”
In his Op-Ed, Sneh argues that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to mend its bridges with the United States, and the only way to do so is by enacting an immediate and total ban on any settlement activity, including in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
“Without international legitimacy, and with its friend mad at it, Israel would find it very difficult to act on its own” against Iran, he argued.
See the original article at NewsMax
See this and more stories at Israel Behind the News
Israel will be compelled to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities by this November unless the U.S. and its allies enact “crippling sanctions that will undermine the regime in Tehran,” former deputy defense minister Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday in Tel Aviv.
The sanctions currently being discussed with Russia, China, and other major powers at the United Nations are likely to be a slightly-enhanced version of the U.N. sanctions already in place, which have had no impact on the Iranian regime.
And despite unanimous passage of the Iran Petroleum Sanctions Act in January, the Obama administration continues to resist efforts by Congress to impose mandatory sanctions on companies selling refined petroleum products to Iran.
In an Op-Ed in the Israeli left-wing daily, Haaretz, Sneh argues that Iran will probably have “a nuclear bomb or two” by 2011.
“An Israeli military campaign against Iran’s nuclear installations is likely to cripple that country’s nuclear project for a number of years. The retaliation against Israel would be painful, but bearable.”
Sneh believes that the “acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran during Obama’s term would do him a great deal of political damage,” but that the damage to Obama resulting from an Israeli strike on Iran “would be devastating.”
Nevertheless, he writes, “for practical reasons, in the absence of genuine sanctions, Israel will not be able to wait until the end of next winter, which means it would have to act around the congressional elections in November, thereby sealing Obama’s fate as president.”
Sneh does not foresee any U.S. military strikes on Iran, an analysis that is shared by most observers in Washington, who see the Obama administration moving toward containment as opposed to confrontation with Iran.
In a recent report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), military analyst Anthony Cordesman concluded that Israel will have to use low-yield earth-penetrating nuclear weapons if it wants to take out deeply-buried nuclear sites in Iran.
“Israel is reported to possess a 200 kilogram nuclear warhead containing 6 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium that could be mounted on the sea launched cruise missiles and producing a Yield of 20 kilo tons,” Cordesman writes in the CSIS study he co-authored by Abdullah Toukan.
Israel would be most likely to launch these missiles from its Dolphin-class submarines, he added.
While Sneh is no longer in the Israeli government, his revelation of a drop-dead date for an Israeli military strike on Iran must be taken seriously, Israel-watchers in the U.S. tell Newsmax.
“Ephraim Sneh is a serious guy,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “He was deputy minister of defense and has long been focused on the issue of Iran.”
Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director for Security Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), said that what struck her most about Sneh’s comments was the shift of emphasis from resolving the Palestinian problem to Iran.
“For 30 years, he’s been saying that solving the Palestinian problem is Israel’s biggest priority. Now he’s saying, forget about the Palestinians. Iran is the problem.”
Sneh “is extremely well regarded on the left and the right,” she added. “People respect him enormously.”
In his Op-Ed, Sneh argues that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to mend its bridges with the United States, and the only way to do so is by enacting an immediate and total ban on any settlement activity, including in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
“Without international legitimacy, and with its friend mad at it, Israel would find it very difficult to act on its own” against Iran, he argued.
See the original article at NewsMax
See this and more stories at Israel Behind the News
Monday, January 4, 2010
Canadian MP Prof. Irwin Cotler Spearheads Campaign for International Sanctions on Iran
Canadian MP Prof. Irwin Cotler Spearheads Campaign for International Sanctions on Iran
By David Bedein and Arlene Kushner
This past Wednesday, December 30, 2009, Professor Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian parliament and former Canadian minister of justice and Canadian Attorney General, conducted a press briefing at the King David Hotel in which he announced that he was spearheading new international sanctions against Iran.
Speaking of the parallels between the current situation and 1939, Prof. Cotler addressed the issue of the Iranian threat from multiple perspectives:
The Iran of Ahmadinejad, says Cotler, is a clear and present danger to Middle East stability, Israel and Jews more broadly, and its own people.
Of great concern is the indifference and inaction of the international community with respect to these dangers, and the impunity with which Ahmadinejad is permitted to proceed.
He proposes an approach to Iran that is broad-based, and demands accountability of Iran with regard to all of the threats it currently represents:
1) Iran is defying the international community with regard to its nuclear development. It is in standing violation of UN prohibitions.
2) Iran has already committed incitement to genocide, as forbidden by the Genocide Convention.
3) Iran is a state sponsor of international terrorism.
4) Iran commits major human rights violations against its own people.
Prof Cotler asserts thatr it is a mistake to focus only on the nuclear threat. This marginalizes the other threats, and allows Iran to proceed as if there is no international concern at these various levels.
Engagement with Iran must deal with all of it. Professor Cotler is working with some 60 international human rights lawyers, who will be releasing a petition very soon that will provide documented evidence of Iranian violations and propose actions to be taken.
Members of this group will be visiting Western capitals -- 15 have been targeted -- in an attempt to energize specific actions against Iran. Recommendations include comprehensive, calibrated and targeted sanctions:
a) Iran is currently in violation of five sets of UN resolutions, which are not being enforced. The start is the enforcement of these resolutions.
b) Gasoline sanctions: measures against those who export refined petroleum products to Iran, or facilitate such export.
c) Curbing of energy investments in Iran. This would include the energy infrastructure -- shipping, etc.
d) Include the Iranian Central Bank -- which is at the heart of Iranian financial dealings -- in financial sanctions. This has not been done yet.
e) International institutions must be monitored with regard to money laundering for Iran.
f) Companies that facilitate domestic repression in Iran must be sanctioned.
g) Sanction companies that do business with the Revolutionary Guard -- the most vicious and radical element in Iran and the one that now has control. The Guard must be put on terrorism lists.
h) Embargoes must be placed against technology and arms transfers to Iran.
i) Landing permission must be denied to the Iranian transportation industry -- planes and ships. Note: The UN is serving as a third party in money laundering for Iran. Iran has been using a UN office -- The Asia Clearing Union -- to avoid US financial sanctions that forbid dealing with Iran.
These sanctions are only the beginning, however.
Additional Cotler recommendations include:
1) The eight precursors to genocide have already been identifiedas existing in Iran.
In such a situation, the Genocide Convention calls for specific actions.
HOWEVER, not one single signatory nation has undertaken these actions.
They are not voluntary -- they constitute a legal obligation. Says Cotler: "International legal responsibility is not a 'policy option.'"
1) The issue must be raised in the Security Council and an inter-state complaint must be brought before the International Court of Justice.
2) Interpol, the international criminal police organization, has a warrant out for the arrest of Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Minister of Defense, for his role in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But the world seems to be ignoring this.
3) It is important to provide solidarity with the Iranian opposition forces -- those challenging the government.
We are not at a tipping point yet, but it may come, and they may in time overturn the current regime.
They need international support.
Professor Cotler says there is no absence of remedy -- the problem is absence of action.
"We are witnesses to the crime of indifference", he concluded.
Indeed, perhaps the most newsworthy aspect of Prof. Cotler's press conference was that Iran Ahmad Vahidi, who has been named the Defense Minister of Iran, is wanted for the mass murder attack of the Jewish community center in Argentina which he masterminded in 1994.
Vahidi was the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force when he oversaw that antisemitic terrorist attack.
At the demand of the Argentinian government, Interpol issued a "wanted persons" alert for him in 2007.
Indeed, a quick search on the interpol web site will reveal the fact that, indeed,
Ahmad Vahidi remains on the active list of people whom Interpol still posts a "wanted" poster for Ahmad Vahidi's arrest..
See:
When Vahidi got his position to oversee the entire military apparatus of Iran earlier this year, a spokesperson for the US State Department simply described Vahidi's nomination as "disturbing".
By David Bedein and Arlene Kushner
This past Wednesday, December 30, 2009, Professor Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian parliament and former Canadian minister of justice and Canadian Attorney General, conducted a press briefing at the King David Hotel in which he announced that he was spearheading new international sanctions against Iran.
Speaking of the parallels between the current situation and 1939, Prof. Cotler addressed the issue of the Iranian threat from multiple perspectives:
The Iran of Ahmadinejad, says Cotler, is a clear and present danger to Middle East stability, Israel and Jews more broadly, and its own people.
Of great concern is the indifference and inaction of the international community with respect to these dangers, and the impunity with which Ahmadinejad is permitted to proceed.
He proposes an approach to Iran that is broad-based, and demands accountability of Iran with regard to all of the threats it currently represents:
1) Iran is defying the international community with regard to its nuclear development. It is in standing violation of UN prohibitions.
2) Iran has already committed incitement to genocide, as forbidden by the Genocide Convention.
3) Iran is a state sponsor of international terrorism.
4) Iran commits major human rights violations against its own people.
Prof Cotler asserts thatr it is a mistake to focus only on the nuclear threat. This marginalizes the other threats, and allows Iran to proceed as if there is no international concern at these various levels.
Engagement with Iran must deal with all of it. Professor Cotler is working with some 60 international human rights lawyers, who will be releasing a petition very soon that will provide documented evidence of Iranian violations and propose actions to be taken.
Members of this group will be visiting Western capitals -- 15 have been targeted -- in an attempt to energize specific actions against Iran. Recommendations include comprehensive, calibrated and targeted sanctions:
a) Iran is currently in violation of five sets of UN resolutions, which are not being enforced. The start is the enforcement of these resolutions.
b) Gasoline sanctions: measures against those who export refined petroleum products to Iran, or facilitate such export.
c) Curbing of energy investments in Iran. This would include the energy infrastructure -- shipping, etc.
d) Include the Iranian Central Bank -- which is at the heart of Iranian financial dealings -- in financial sanctions. This has not been done yet.
e) International institutions must be monitored with regard to money laundering for Iran.
f) Companies that facilitate domestic repression in Iran must be sanctioned.
g) Sanction companies that do business with the Revolutionary Guard -- the most vicious and radical element in Iran and the one that now has control. The Guard must be put on terrorism lists.
h) Embargoes must be placed against technology and arms transfers to Iran.
i) Landing permission must be denied to the Iranian transportation industry -- planes and ships. Note: The UN is serving as a third party in money laundering for Iran. Iran has been using a UN office -- The Asia Clearing Union -- to avoid US financial sanctions that forbid dealing with Iran.
These sanctions are only the beginning, however.
Additional Cotler recommendations include:
1) The eight precursors to genocide have already been identifiedas existing in Iran.
In such a situation, the Genocide Convention calls for specific actions.
HOWEVER, not one single signatory nation has undertaken these actions.
They are not voluntary -- they constitute a legal obligation. Says Cotler: "International legal responsibility is not a 'policy option.'"
1) The issue must be raised in the Security Council and an inter-state complaint must be brought before the International Court of Justice.
2) Interpol, the international criminal police organization, has a warrant out for the arrest of Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Minister of Defense, for his role in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But the world seems to be ignoring this.
3) It is important to provide solidarity with the Iranian opposition forces -- those challenging the government.
We are not at a tipping point yet, but it may come, and they may in time overturn the current regime.
They need international support.
Professor Cotler says there is no absence of remedy -- the problem is absence of action.
"We are witnesses to the crime of indifference", he concluded.
Indeed, perhaps the most newsworthy aspect of Prof. Cotler's press conference was that Iran Ahmad Vahidi, who has been named the Defense Minister of Iran, is wanted for the mass murder attack of the Jewish community center in Argentina which he masterminded in 1994.
Vahidi was the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force when he oversaw that antisemitic terrorist attack.
At the demand of the Argentinian government, Interpol issued a "wanted persons" alert for him in 2007.
Indeed, a quick search on the interpol web site will reveal the fact that, indeed,
Ahmad Vahidi remains on the active list of people whom Interpol still posts a "wanted" poster for Ahmad Vahidi's arrest..
See:
When Vahidi got his position to oversee the entire military apparatus of Iran earlier this year, a spokesperson for the US State Department simply described Vahidi's nomination as "disturbing".
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